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Field guide · Cabling & low-voltage

RJ11 Wiring and Phone Pinouts

The six-position telephone pinout, shown for one, two, and three lines. Covers both the old four-colour quad station wire and the twisted-pair equivalent used in modern work, explains tip and ring, and shows why lines number outward from the centre pair.

Diagram

Six positions, three lines, two colour systems.

Connector

Two lines. Adds positions 2 and 5.

Cable in hand

Cat5e or Cat6 — normal in anything installed this century.

Six-position body — 6P4C
1—
2L2 tip
3L1 ring
4L1 tip
5L2 ring
6—

Clip away from you, contacts toward you, position 1 on the left. Faded positions exist on the body but are not loaded on this variant.

Lines work outward from the centre
  • Line 1pins 3 & 4
  • Line 2pins 2 & 5
  • Line 3pins 1 & 6

This is why a single-line cord always finds line 1 whatever it is plugged into: line 1 sits on the centre pair, and every larger variant builds outward around it.

Six-position pin assignments
PinLineSideConductor
13tipwhite/green
22tipwhite/orange
31ringblue
41tipwhite/blue
52ringorange
63ringgreen
Fig. 01The six-position body, shown for one, two, and three lines. Switch between quad station wire and twisted pair depending on what is actually in the wall — the positions do not move, only the colours on them.

Drill

Now do it
from memory

Six positions, and the only thing to remember is that lines build outward from the middle. Place the conductors and check.

Wire it as

Two lines. Adds positions 2 and 5.

Wire it yourself

Place the twisted-pair conductors for 6P4C. Lines work outward from the centre, so line 1 sits on the middle two positions.

Select a conductor, then the position it belongs in. Select a filled position to lift it back out. Nothing is timed until you start.

Procedure

Doing it

Terminating a phone jack, and confirming you have the line you think you have before you close the wall.

Tools
  • Punchdown tool or crimp tool for six-position plugs
  • Toner and probe
Materials
  • Station wire or Cat5e
  • Six-position jacks or plugs

  1. Establish which line you are working on

    Lines work outward from the centre of the connector. Line 1 is positions 3 and 4, line 2 adds 2 and 5, line 3 adds 1 and 6. A single-line cord therefore always finds line 1 whatever it is plugged into.

  2. Identify the cable you actually have

    Older residential work uses four-colour quad — green, red, black, yellow. Anything installed recently uses twisted pair, where the blue pair is line 1 and the orange pair is line 2. The diagram above shows both.

    CautionQuad wire is untwisted and unsuitable for data. Do not reuse a quad run for Ethernet.

  3. Confirm the line is not ringing

    A POTS line idles at about −48 V DC and rises to roughly 90 V AC while ringing. Take the handset off hook at the far end, or disconnect at the demarcation point, before handling bare conductors.

    CautionRing voltage will not injure a healthy adult, but the reflex it triggers on a ladder can.

  4. Terminate tip and ring the right way round

    Tip is the white-striped conductor, ring is the solid. On most analogue equipment a reversal still works, which is precisely why the mistake spreads through a building unnoticed until something polarity-sensitive arrives.

  5. Test with a butt set or a working handset

    Dial tone at the jack confirms the pair and the polarity together. A continuity test alone will not tell you that you have line 2 on a line 1 jack.

Questions

Questions people actually ask

What is the difference between RJ11, RJ14 and RJ25?
They share the same six-position body and differ only in how many contacts are loaded. RJ11 loads two contacts for one line, RJ14 loads four for two lines, and RJ25 loads all six for three lines.
Can I plug an RJ11 cord into an RJ45 jack?
It fits, but do not. The narrower plug can deform the outer contacts of the eight-position jack, and the damage is invisible until that jack is used for data and fails intermittently.
Which wires are line 1 on a phone jack?
The centre two positions — 3 and 4. On quad station wire that is green (tip) and red (ring); on twisted pair it is white/blue (tip) and blue (ring).
Can I run a phone line over Cat5e?
Yes, and it is the better practice. Use the blue pair for line 1 and the orange pair for line 2. A Cat5e run also leaves the option of repurposing the cable for data later, which quad wire does not.

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